


sorry about the blood in your mouth

by trobedrights



Category: It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
Genre: Angst, Coming Out, Love Confessions, M/M, Post-Season/Series 14, a lil ooc but i don't think it's too bad, dennis reynolds mentally ill king, projecting onto him whywhywhy, this is my first sunny fic Who Else Cheered!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-28
Updated: 2021-02-28
Packaged: 2021-03-12 02:41:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,190
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29752854
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/trobedrights/pseuds/trobedrights
Summary: Dennis is sprawled on the floor of the bar, staring at the ceiling. “I’m in love with Mac.”
Relationships: Dee Reynolds & Dennis Reynolds, Mac McDonald/Dennis Reynolds
Comments: 2
Kudos: 31





	sorry about the blood in your mouth

**Author's Note:**

> started out as dee dennis siblingism. ended up as sad macden. what can i say i'm gay

“I have to tell you something, Dee.”

She sets her drink down and looks up at Dennis, who’s panting. “Did you run here?”

“Whatever. Okay, I know this will come as a surprise, because I’ve banged insane, possibly superhuman, numbers of women, but…” he pauses to take a breath, “I like dudes.”

She stares at him in shock for a second, then laughs. “No shit, Dennis.”

He gapes at her. “What the hell do you mean no shit?”

“I mean no shit. Dude, you’re almost as obvious as Mac was. I just didn’t think you’d ever admit it.”

“Obvious?! I was not  _ obvious _ , I’m a master at straight sex and-”

“Jesus Christ, calm down. You wear makeup all the damn time, you’ve never been emotionally attached to a woman, you’ve had an incredibly homoerotic relationship with your best friend for over twenty years, I could go on. I’ve known for a while.”

“Oh, Jesus, those are just stereotypes, Dee!”

“Well, I wasn’t wrong.” She takes a swig of her drink. “Whatever, I don’t think Frank and Charlie know, so you can give them whatever dramatic speech you were planning.”

“Does Mac know?” he says, sounding almost scared.

“I don’t know, Dennis, it’s not like we  _ talk  _ about it. But probably not, he wouldn’t want to get his hopes up and he’s oblivious as hell anyway. Anyways, speaking of him, I’m glad you guys can finally get your shit together now that you’re gonna be out or whatever.”

“What do you mean get our shit together?”

“Date? Or...I don’t know, whatever you decide you wanna do. Admit your feelings, at least.”

Dennis scoffs. “My feelings? I don’t have feelings, and if they did they would not be for Mac, I can tell you that.”

Dee buries her head in her hands. “Oh my god, you’re insufferable. Of fucking course you have feelings for Mac, I thought that was what prompted this whole thing.”

“Nothing prompted it, I just thought oh shit! Dudes are hot, I don’t care about women, and that’s acceptable now.”

“So you’re telling me you’re not in love with Mac.”

“Of course not.”

“You are fucking insane. I can’t do this right now.”

A couple days later, Dennis walks into the bar again in a similar state.

“Out of curiosity,” he says, “Why do you think I’m in love with Mac?”

She wants to scream like Charlie. “Oh, gosh, Dennis, I have no idea, why would I ever think that?”

“I know  _ he’s  _ in love with  _ me _ , but it’s not like it’s reciprocated.”

“I told you I’m not gonna help you out with this. I think it should be obvious.”

“Deeeeeee,” he whines. “Come on.”

She throws her hands up in the air. “Okay, fine. Why do you need Mac to love you so much?”

“I don’t need Mac to love me. I don’t need anyone to love me! Even though everyone does.”

Dee rolls her eyes. “Why did you come back from North Dakota?”

He’s still. “Oh...I mean, y’know...things just happen- life is crazy, y’know?”

She slides her drink over to him. “I have a feeling you’re gonna need to get drunk to deal with this.”

“There’s nothing to deal with,” he says, but it’s halfhearted.

“Sure.”

**Two Hours Later**

Dennis is sprawled on the floor of the bar, staring at the ceiling. “I’m in love with Mac.”

Dee is sitting next to him, her knees curled up against her chest. She pats his hand. “Took you long enough. He’s gonna be here soon, y’know.”

He stares at her in horror. “What?”

“Yeah, him and Frank and Charlie were doing something, but they’re gonna be back in a few minutes.”

“I can’t see him, Dee!”

“You live with him, asshole, you can’t avoid him forever. Besides, what are you gonna do, immediately lose it and confess the second you see him?”

“I’m afraid I’m going to.”

“You have an insanely good track record at keeping things inside you, you’ll be fine.”

“Heyooooo!” Mac says, bursting through the door, Charlie and Frank following behind. “Sup bitches- why are you guys on the floor?”

Dennis mumbles something incoherent. Dee clinks her bottle against his. “Cheers to that, brother.”

“Okay then,” Mac says, grabbing a bottle and sitting down next to her. “The scheme went so well, guys, they totally bought into the whole frog murder thing.”

“It’s not frog murder!” Charlie yells. “It’s just capturing and then  _ maybe  _ a light bit of torture but only if necessary.”

“You killed the damn frog, Charlie,” says Frank.

“Ohhhh, I’m Frank Reynolds and I’ve never  _ accidentally  _ beat a frog to death, it’s not  _ my _ fault it wasn’t cooperating-”

“I’m gay,” Dennis interrupts from the floor, then starts giggling.

“Goddammit!” Dee exclaims. “I helped you with your stupid speech and everything and you didn't even use it!”

“We have another gay here?” Frank says, squinting. “Thought there could only be one. Since when does _he_ like dick?”

“Since always,” Dee scoffs.

They all turn to Dennis. He looks surprisingly calm. Finally, he says, “I get it, Mac. Why you finally decided to stay out.”

Mac, who’s been uncharacteristically silent this whole time, looks down at him. “Yeah.” Then he stands up and walks out.

“Huh,” Charlie says. “You’d think he’d be, like, super excited.”

Dennis drags himself across the floor. “I’m gonna go. Talk to him.”

“Jesus, Dennis, you’re drunk as hell, that’s not gonna go well,” Dee says.

“Whatever.”

“Mac, wait!” Dennis calls, stumbling out of the bar.

Mac turns to look at him. “What?”

“Why are you being so weird?”

“I’m not being weird.”

“You are, why aren’t you happy for me? You should be happy for me, dude, like... _ you’re  _ gay, and now I’m gay or whatever, and yeah.”

“Uh-huh. I’m going home.”

“You’re going- what? Why?”

“You’re so drunk, dude, I can’t do this right now.”

“At least take me home. Otherwise I’ll have to get a ride with Dee and she’ll just be. Squawking and squawking, you know how she is.” He waves a hand in the air. “I talked to her a lot today, y’know? It was actually. It was fine. Anyways…”

“Okay, dude, just shut up and get in the car.”

Dennis shuts up and gets in the car.

When they get back to the apartment, Dennis is already asleep. Mac looks over at him and sighs.

He looks peaceful while he’s sleeping. Which is cliche, but true. He can almost forget everything that Dennis has ever done to him.

He knows he’ll forget about all that anyway in the morning if Dennis is the slightest bit nice to him. It’s a fucking curse, really. He gets angry at him, sure; sometimes he even thinks he hates Dennis. Despises him more than anyone in the world. But he’s impossible to escape.

And now with whatever that was in the bar...he’s not sure where that leaves him. He’s not sure exactly what Dennis feels for him, never has been. He hates that it gives him hope. Dennis will probably just go back in the closet again, God knows Mac has experience with that.

But for now, at least, life seems like it could be peaceful.

Mac picks Dennis up and carries him inside.

Mac knocks on his door the next day at noon. “Dennis?”

“You can come in.”

He opens the door. Dennis is laying on his bed in almost the exact same position he was on the floor last night.

He's silent for a second, then says, “I haven’t gotten that hammered in years.”

“Realizing you’re gay will do that to you.”

“Eh, I already told Dee I was gay a few days ago.”

Mac cocks his head. “Then why’d you get so drunk last night?”

Dennis sighs and rolls over, shoving his face into the bed. “Realized something else.”

“Oh.” Mac is pretty sure he knows what that something is. He’s not sure if he wants to hear it.

“Mac, I…”

“No,” Mac says abruptly. “Don’t say it right now.”

Dennis sits up and looks at him. “What?”

He shakes his head. “I don’t want to hear it.”

“Really? So you don’t- I mean, I thought that was all you wanted to hear.”

“It is. But I don’t know if I can take it.”

Dennis stares at him incredulously. “Mac, I’m having  _ feelings  _ right now! We don’t know when that’s gonna happen again, I say we should take advantage of it.”

“Bullshit, dude, you have feelings all the time! You have more feelings than me, for fuck’s sake. You’re just too much of a pussy to do anything about them.”

“Oh, I’m the pussy, as though you haven’t been in love with me for twenty goddamn years and never said anything about it.”

“You do not get to say that to me.”

“Whatever, it’s just-”

“No! You don’t fucking get to say that to me. You don’t fucking know what it’s like to wait on you hand and foot just begging for the tiniest bit of affection. You are  _ so goddamn hard  _ to deal with, dude! And I fucking hate you sometimes but I can’t leave you because then who would I be? And we used to be two codependent losers like Dee always said and we still are but now it’s like you have all the power and I hate it, man, but I can’t do anything about it! And holy shit, I just wanna punch you but I also kinda wanna make out with you but I can’t do either of those things, and I don’t even understand you or what it is you want from me! What the hell do you want from me, Dennis?”

For once, Dennis is speechless. Good. Let him sit with that.

“Mac, I-”

Mac wordlessly walks out of the room and shuts the door.

Typical Mac. Typical, typical Mac, thinking everything is Dennis’s fault somehow. As if Dennis doesn’t feel the exact same way about him. 

“I have the power?” he mutters to himself. “ _ I  _ have the power, when I can’t live without your stupid ass fawning after me. I’m gonna kill him, I swear to God I am.”

Somewhere in his mind, he’s aware that what Mac said is kinda true, but it’s not like he ever goes that deep into the emotional part of his brain. It can stay there. He doesn’t want to unpack all that.

He wishes Mac would just lighten up and let him tell him he loves him. Though he’s not sure if he wants to do that anymore. It’s like...it’s like whenever Mac does something, a switch in his brain flips. He’ll go a day hating his guts, and then he’ll do something random, and suddenly, he’ll be filled with nothing but adoration. There’s no in between, and it’s  _ so stupid _ . Why can’t he just love Mac like a normal human being?

He knows none of them are normal, but he feels like the most fucked up one of all sometimes. Kind of sad, considering Charlie is in the competition.

He comes out of his room for dinner. Mac wordlessly shoves a plate of food across the table to him. He doesn’t eat it.

Dennis feels small.

They do pretty much the same things they always did. The rest of the gang makes more gay jokes about Dennis than usual. That’s all that really changes.

He doesn’t look directly at Mac much anymore.

Dennis sits in the middle of the alleyway, rain pouring down. 

He’s always liked the rain. When he and Dee were kids, when they were a little fucked up but not this fucked up, they’d play in it sometimes. Later, he would go sit in it himself, let the rain wash over him. Wash his sins away, which was a bit too religious-sounding for him but was what it felt like.

Mac knows this. Dennis knows Mac knows this. He’s not surprised when Mac walks outside and sits beside him. 

“Hello, Mac,” he says. It’s not really meant to sound bitter, but it does.

“I’m sorry,” Mac says softly.

“Oh, Jesus, Mac, please don’t be sorry. I don’t want you to be sorry.”

“What do you want?”

“If I knew what I wanted, I’d have it already.”

Mac tentatively puts an arm around Dennis’s shoulder. He doesn’t pull away.

If he cries right now, no one will be able to tell because of the rain. Who is he kidding, he can’t cry anyway.

“I didn’t mean I was sorry about what I said. I meant I’m sorry about...I don’t know. Us. Me. You.”

“Hm. Then I’m sorry too. I guess.”

Dennis leans his head against Mac’s shoulder. This has to be the closest they’ve been in years. He hadn’t realized just how much he’d missed it.

“Can I say it now?” he asks quietly.

“...Yeah. Yeah, you can say it.”

So he does, barely audible over the sound of the rain.

Mac doesn’t need to say it back, he’s implicitly said it a thousand times in the nearly thirty years they’ve known each other. But he does anyway. “I love you.”

**Author's Note:**

> i don't know what being drunk is like Sorry


End file.
